The Cook Islands

So much has happened since our last blog post: two days at Taha’a snorkelling in the coral gardens and playing more Scrabble and cards with Dancing Walrus (by the way there is usually always an interesting story behind the name of a boat. In this case Dancing Walrus bears its name as the result of an award Ken won plus he and Joni feel the big cat lumbers along like a walrus trying to dance). We had a fast sail under the genoa over to Bora Bora, only 15 miles away. Two nights here on a mooring ball at the Bora Bora Yacht Club, a yacht club in name only as it really is just a bar, restaurant and cheap mooring balls. While Bora Bora was nice enough, there were lots of skinny, barking dogs and traffic so we decided to limit our time there in order to keep moving west and to give us more time in other places that beckoned. After concluding the endless paperchase of checking out and retrieving the bond we had had to pay for Louise to be in French Polynesia, and topping up with diesel, we bade farewell to these French Society Islands. We set sail at 3pm on Friday 10 August for Aitutaki in the Cook Islands, some 478 miles away. Our passage to Aitutaki started with steady winds from SSE of about 12 knots. The winds started to ease in the first evening and then continued to lighten over the next 2 days so by Sunday night we had furled the reacher and started motoring. We motored for around 36 hours in order to keep an average speed of 5 knots that would ensure we would arrive at Aitutaki in both daylight and high tide – essential for entering the narrow, shallow pass through the coral reef. On Tuesday afternoon the wind came in from the south so we were able to douse the motor and unfurl the genoa. Ironically, after all that motoring, as we closed in on Aitutaki on Tuesday evening and into the graveyard hours of Wednesday morning, we had to reduce sail to slow ourselves down so we wouldn’t arrive before daylight. We had a relatively small window of opportunity to enter the pass as sunrise was at 7am and high tide was at 7.30am, but we arrived in good time. It is recommended that only boats drawing 6 feet or less attempt to enter the pass and even then it should be at high tide and with good visibility. Brio draws around 5 ½ feet when loaded so we figured we’d be fine and we were, but it was still a little nerve wracking seeing the coral so close. The Aitutaki anchorage is tiny with space for around 4 yachts. We manoeuvred into a pozzie tying our bow to the nearest palm tree and putting out a stern anchor. Aitutaki is a low island, fringed by coral reef and on its way to becoming an atoll. It has a population of about 1,500 people and thousands of wild hens and roosters of all colours and sizes scurrying everywhere. Surprisingly not a dog is to be found on the island. The story behind this is that many years ago one of the chiefs sons was bitten by a dog and so he decreed all dogs be banned from the island. As an introduction to the Cook Islands Aitutaki was fabulous. The islanders are relaxed, welcoming and always happy to have a chat. We rented a motor scooter while we were there to get around and visited the marine research centre where they are breeding clams from the Great Barrier Reef to restock their own reef where the clams have died out (apparently due to chemical run off from banana plantations). We ended one afternoon watching some soccer matches “Soccer Friday” where village plays against village in various age groups. We noticed a similarity between this island and that of Moorea in French Polynesia: grandma is often in the front garden – 6 feet under that is! It seems it is more usual to bury one’s family on the family land than to put them in a graveyard. Many of the graves look like well kept shrines. It is also interesting that you can’t buy land on the island, it is passed down through the family line. We had an excellent time at Aitutaki. One of my lasting memories will be of flying my kite in the late afternoon sunshine with a couple of young boys who were screaming and giggling with pleasure while the beautiful singing from the church service nearby came floating across on the wind. Go there before it’s too late for there are plans to expand the harbour to cater for 100 boats. After 5 days taking it easy on Aitutaki we pulled in our lines and anchor at about 10.30 on Monday morning and left on the high tide, again making it through the pass without incident. Our next destination was the even smaller island of Palmerston about 200 miles NW of Aitutaki. The forecast indicated we should have one day of reasonable wind before easing to light winds. However it was not to be as we experienced winds of below 10 knots then petering out to nothing. While it meant we ended up motoring virtually the whole 2 days and nights of the passage, at least being in the middle of a high meant we also saw some fantastic sunsets. We also tried out our new 100m line and caught a nice big tuna along the way. We arrived at Palmerston at around 8am on Wednesday to the sight of a whale breeching. Louise’s first ever sighting of a whale in the flesh. If the Pacific is like a blanket of turquoise and royal blue with islands strewn like jewels across it, then we have found the brightest gem of all. Palmerston is unique, there’s simply no other word to describe it…..well actually we could describe it as we would other islands: brilliant white coral sand, surrounded by water all shades of blue, coconut palms swaying in the gentle breeze under a cerulean sky. What sets Palmerston apart though is its interesting history and local culture, including how visitors are received. Palmerston was uninhabited in 1862 when Lancashireman William Marsters came to live here with his three Polynesian wives. He divided the island and reef into parts for each family and fathered 26 children. 73 people live on the island now and all of the families are descendants of Marsters. When you arrive at the island you are met by someone in a tinny who will guide you to a mooring ball or anchor site. That person and their family then become your hosts for the period of your stay at the island. There are 6 moorings balls outside the reef and when we arrived they were all taken so we were directed to an anchoring spot (fine as long as the wind didn’t change to the west and push us onto the reef). As yachts come and go regularly we were able to move onto a mooring ball that evening. In our case Edward Marsters guided us in and once the anchor was down he chatted with us for a bit and then said he would be back at 11 o’clock to take us through the reef and to the island for lunch. The hosting is taken very seriously and responsibilities include providing us with meals whenever we are ashore, ferrying us to and fro the island, navigating the tricky, shallow pass and generally looking after every need we have. In return we cruisers scour our boats for food and hardware items, books, cd’s, clothes etc. that we can give to our host family as they only see a supply boat every 3 or 4 months if they are lucky. We were actually transporting a bag of tomatoes, a cabbage and tobacco and papers for Edward as a result of a request we had received over the SSB radio. On our first day we were also happy to hand over some of our freshly caught tuna to contribute to the lunch. Lunch was a big affair, the womenfolk preparing the food in their outdoor kitchen and about 20 people comprising Edward’s immediate and extended family and cruisers from about 4 yachts partaking of the feast. For a small island Palmerston is well appointed with a small school, a health clinic run by one nurse, a church (of course!) and a telecommunications office where you can pick up internet, phone home and check the timetable for what will be on the satellite television that night. The island generators run for about 6 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening to power the batteries that provide the island’s power supply. Continuous power is important as so much of the food must be kept frozen with little fresh food able to be grown here. You would think a walk around the few ‘streets’ on the island wouldn’t take long on an island that only takes 30 minutes to circumnavigate. But wherever you go people invite you to stop and have a drink or share some food or simply sit for a while and have a chat. Usually they want to give you something to leave with too – fresh eggs or wholemeal bread. Such is the generosity and open interest that people display here. We are not naïve enough to think that in such a small community there are no divisions and issues, but overall there appears harmony and a pretty united community spirit. We were sad to leave Palmerston on Saturday morning for our 3-4 day journey to Niue, but other lands, including Australia beckon.